Things to be Thankful For
by Skillzys
Summary: Quinn and The Mack host their first Thanksgiving on their own, but things don't go as smoothly as they planned. Quack and Brittana. One-shot.


**AN:** A prompt filled for my good friend Kel. I hope you all enjoy it!

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The Mack shifts beneath the soft sheets, seeking the warmth of her girlfriend's body. Her brow furrows, however, when she ends up on the other side of the bed and there's no warm body beneath her. She forces her eyes open and rolls onto her other side and finds the rest of the bed is empty as well. The red numbers of the alarm clock are too blurry to decipher, but the first number looks like a five. Mack rolls onto her back and closes her eyes as she tries to decide whether or not she wants to find her absent girlfriend. The chill that slips beneath the comforter makes her decision for her. She gets out of bed and shuffles out of the room.

A dim light fights the edges of the shadow in the hall. Mack follows it until she's in the kitchen, where she finds Quinn, already dressed for the day, in front of the toaster with a loaf of bread in her hand. A plate of toasted pieces and a large bowl are next to the toaster. She steps up to the blonde and wraps her arms around the woman's middle. She presses her cheek against Quinn's back, closes her eyes, and sighs.

"I didn't wake you, did I? I thought I was being quiet," Quinn says before she sets the bread on the counter and brings her hands down to the ones pressing on her stomach. Mack shakes her head against Quinn's back. "Then what has you up so early?" she asks, although she's sure she already knows the answer.

"Cold."

Quinn smiles at the quiet response. "Maybe you'd be warmer if you slept with pants on."

"Don't wanna sleep with some pants," Mack mumbles. Her hands slip under the hem of the blonde's shirt and she trails her fingers over soft skin, up to the edge of Quinn's bra. "Wanna sleep with you," she says before she leans up and kisses the side of Quinn's neck.

"Let me finish the stuffing and I'll…" She loses her train of thought when Mack's hands move higher.

"Later."

"Brittany and Santana will be here at two," Quinn reminds her, but she is quickly losing whatever argument she has with each kiss Mack places. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she turns to face the smaller woman, set on convincing her to go back to bed without her. She ends up smiling at the bleary eyes that meet hers. She presses her palm against Mack's cheek and captures her lips with her own. When she pulls away, Mack's eyes are closed and she's swaying on her feet.

"I guess a couple more hours of sleep couldn't hurt," she sighs. Mack hums her agreement and allows Quinn to lead her back to their bedroom.

After the blonde changes into her pajamas, she crawls into the bed next to Mack and the smaller woman wraps her arms around her middle once more. Incoherent mumbles escape as she tries to get comfortable. Once she feels that she is close enough to Quinn, her torso pressed along the length of the blonde's back, she closes her eyes and falls back asleep. It doesn't take long for Quinn to drift off to the sound of Mack's breathing.

The alarm screeches several hours later and both women groan at the sound. Mack reaches over Quinn and feels for the alarm clock, but her hand doesn't even come in contact with the end-table. Quinn reminds her that she's facing the wrong way. She rolls onto her other side and finally finds the clock. She tries to turn off the sound, but she can't find the right button so she yanks on the cord until it comes unplugged. The screeching stops and Mack sighs in relief before she turns back to Quinn, only to find that the blonde woman is already getting dressed.

She props her head up on her hand and watches as Quinn tugs a shirt over her chest. When the blonde looks over her shoulder and catches her staring, Mack smiles and forces herself out of the bed. She gives the blonde a good morning kiss before she tells her she'll be in the kitchen putting the bird in the oven. She feels Quinn's eyes on her bare lower half as she walks towards the door. When she reaches the doorway, she looks back and winks. Red floods Quinn's cheeks and she goes back to searching for her pants. She joins Mack in the kitchen a few minutes later and tosses the darker girl some jeans.

"I can't concentrate if you're walking around like that."

"You ever think maybe that was the point?" Mack asks with a smirk as she tugs the jeans over her legs and buttons them. Quinn rolls her eyes, but she can't stop the smile inching across her face. Mack chuckles and turns back to the large turkey on the stove. Once she is sure all the seasonings are on it, she shoves it into the oven and joins Quinn at the toaster, who slaps her hand away when she tries to steal a piece of toasted bread and tells her to make herself useful.

"Alright, alright. I'll go peel some potatoes or somethin'," she says. She places a quick kiss on Quinn's lips. After she pulls away, she gives the blonde a small smile and whispers, "Happy Thanksgiving, Quinn," before she heads to the kitchen table and starts on the potatoes Quinn had set up the night before. The blonde joins her once she is done toasting the bread.

Hours later, the smell of roasting turkey fills the apartment and Quinn and The Mack sprawl out on the sofa. Quinn's head rests on Mack's lap while the darker girl runs her fingers through the short locks of blonde hair. After high school, Quinn had decided to let it grow out, but found she liked it shorter and asked Santana to chop it off again. Mack likes it either way, as long as she's the only one who gets to play with it the way she is now.

A knock at the door startles Quinn out of her almost-nap. She sits up, but before she can get up to answer the incessant knocking, Mack is already opening the door for their guests. Quinn swears she can feel the energy radiating off of Brittany as she enters the apartment with Santana, whose arm seems quite at home against the dancer's lower back. Just as Mack closes the door, the buzzer on the oven goes off, signaling that the turkey is done.

"Told you we wouldn't be late, San," Brittany whispers in her wife's ear. Two years of marriage and she still isn't tired of thinking of Santana as her wife, the woman she plans to spend the rest of her life with. That thought makes her smile and she kisses Santana's cheek to make her smile just as wide.

"I didn't doubt you for a second, Britt," Santana says after Brittany pulls away. The sound of the oven creaking open draws Santana's attention to the kitchen, where she spots the giant bowl of mashed potatoes on the counter. She doesn't give a damn about the turkey in Mack's hands. As soon as the table is set she is swooping in on those potatoes. "This better not suck, Q."

"Do you really think my mom would let me leave home without teaching me how to cook?"

"Then I hope you actually learned a thing or two," Santana says as she takes Brittany's coat off for her, "'cause I've been craving mashed potatoes like Finn craves sloppy-joes and I'm not even the pregnant one."

The Mack startles at the word pregnant, causing some of the grease to slosh over the side of the pan, and focuses her attention on the conversation going on in the living room.

"Brittany's pregnant?" Quinn asks before she turns to Brittany. "You're pregnant?"

"Yep," Santana says and she beams a smile at her wife. She leans up on her toes and kisses Brittany on the corner of her mouth before she turns back to Quinn and says, "My dad said he'd pay for the insemination so we went and got Brittany knocked up with a turkey baster."

"Son of a bitch!"

Tin clatters against linoleum and the group of women in the living room look in the kitchen. Mack is on her hands and knees, kneeling in a lake of turkey grease as she tries to salvage some of the giant bird she dropped on the floor. Quinn swears under her breath and goes to the kitchen to help, only to slip in the puddle of grease. She reaches towards the counter to steady herself but only succeeds in tipping the bowl of potatoes over the edge as she falls to the floor. When Mack looks up from the ruined turkey and sees her girlfriend covered in the mashed potatoes, her eyes widen and she hurries to her feet so she can help Quinn up, but slips backwards into the stove and knocks the pot of gravy over, spilling it onto the counter. It runs over the edge like a muddy waterfall.

"Tell me I did not just see my motherfucking potatoes go over the edge of that counter," Santana calls from the living room. When Quinn doesn't answer, she leads Brittany to the kitchen. Quinn is sitting with her back against the lower cabinets, staring at the fridge, while Mack tries to scoop some of the gravy back into the pot with her hands.

"I don't think the five second rule applies here," Brittany says as she surveys the disaster in the kitchen. Gravy, grease, and potatoes are everywhere and Mack looks like she's about to burst into tears.

"No, it's fine. It's okay," Mack says. "You're gonna eat it and it's gonna be the shit and taste awesome 'cause Quinn made it and… and…"

And then the tears come. Loud, hiccupping sobs that shake Mack's shoulders. Quinn watches her for a moment before she pulls herself to her feet and takes careful steps towards the fridge. She pulls out two beers and forces one into her girlfriend's hands. She wraps the smaller woman in her arms and lets her cry into her shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry," Mack hiccups. "You worked s-so hard and it was perfect and I ruined it a-all. I'm sorry. I ruin everything."

Quinn rubs circles over Mack's back with her free hand and whispers soothing sounds in her ear. Once the shaking dies down and the sobs turn into sniffles, Quinn pulls away and gives the smaller woman a smile.

"It's okay, Mack. How about we drink the beers and order a pizza?" she suggests. "Then we can clean up while we wait. Does that sound okay?"

Mack sniffles and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand before she nods her head in agreement.

"Go sit at the table and I'll come join you after I make the call."

Mack starts towards the table, but Quinn grabs her by the hand before she can make it far. She pulls the smaller woman into a kiss. When they break apart, she rests her forehead against Mack's, getting mashed potatoes on her as well, and smiles. She reassures her that she didn't ruin anything before she lets her go. Once Brittany joins Mack at the table, Santana swipes some of the potatoes off Quinn's forehead and licks it off her finger.

"Needed more salt anyway."

"Fuck off, Lopez."

"That's Lopez-Pierce to you, Fabray."

Quinn rolls her eyes before she pulls her cellphone out of her pocket and scrolls down to Pizza Hut. After placing an order for three large pepperoni pizzas and two orders of breadsticks, she hangs up and joins Mack at the table. The two of them gulp down their beers and toss the bottles in the recycling bin before they head to the master bathroom to rinse off the ruined dinner.

One shower, two and a half pizzas, and a box of breadsticks later, the four women are too full to move. Brittany and Santana have taken control of the couch while The Mack and Quinn share the recliner. The television is on, but the women are too caught up in each other to notice.

"Sorry I screwed up Thanksgiving," Mack whispers from beneath Quinn. The blonde responds with a kiss on the cheek.

"I told you, you didn't screw it up," she says as she nestles her head under Mack's chin again. She traces circles over Mack's stomach, underneath her tank-top. "You made a mess, yeah, but Santana and Brittany are still here. I'm still here." She lifts her head from Mack's chest and looks the woman in the eyes as she says, "You're still here."

Mack scoffs. "I wouldn't say that's a lot to be thankful for right now."

Quinn swats her on the arm. "Don't tell me what I can and can't be grateful for," she says. She lowers her head again and rests it on Mack's chest. "I'll always be thankful for you, you stubborn ass."

"If you say so, Fabray," Mack says as she closes her eyes and tightens her hold on the blonde woman.

"I'd be thankful for some damn mashed potatoes, but that was taken away from me," Santana says from the couch with a scowl on her face. Quinn starts to roll over so she can glare at her, but Brittany speaks up before she's even halfway through the motion.

"Honey, you brought that on yourself when you said that stuff about the turkey baster," she says before she leans down and kisses Santana on the forehead. "So I guess you'll just have to be thankful for me and our unicorn baby."

"Fine, but we're stopping for mashed potatoes on our way home," Santana huffs, but the scowl morphs into a smile that matches Brittany's. She whispers a quick "I love you," before she lifts up the bottom of Brittany's shirt and kisses her stomach. She settles against the blonde once more and focuses on the television screen. Of course ABC Family would have a Harry Potter marathon playing on Thanksgiving.

Quinn continues to ignore the movie. Instead, she listens to the number of times she can make Mack's breath hitch by running her fingers over her stomach. It isn't a bad way to spend the holiday. The dinner may not have gone according to plan, but to Quinn, it had ended as the perfect first Thanksgiving away from home and she has the woman beneath her to thank for it. And maybe the two women she knows are close to making out on her couch.

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**AN:** Yes, Mack did get a little emotional there, but can you blame her? RIP mashed potatoes.


End file.
